Store Workers Aid Arrests

DIGEST

POMPANO BEACH — Some employees at a Pompano Beach grocery store helped police nab three women accused of taking a 73-year-old woman's wallet on Tuesday afternoon, said Sandra King, Pompano Beach police spokeswoman. Police are investigating whether the trio is also responsible for picking purses of dozens of elderly customers in Broward and Palm Beach counties, King said.

According to King: The trio distracted the woman in the produce department at the Winn-Dixie, 1199 S. Federal Highway, before taking her wallet.

Employees chased them. The women got into a Dodge Ram pickup truck. But the employees prevented them from leaving by blocking the vehicle with their bodies. Police arrived a minute later, and the wallet was found stuffed inside a loaf of Dandee white bread that one of the women had purchased.

Charged with strong-arm robbery and grand theft are Tomako Williams, 29, and Cynthia Brinson, 26, both of Lake Worth; and Ann Marie Patero, 33, of West Palm Beach. They were being held on Tuesday night in the Broward County Jail.